This little-known streaming service has great movies, no ads â and it's totally free
The streaming revolution has made almost the entirety of movie history available at the clack of a keyboard, but itâs far from perfect. For one thing, itâs grown terribly expensive. As the number of platforms has exploded, the notion of canceling cable â the dream of the early streaming era â has become increasingly cost prohibitive. And yes, while there are a handful of free, ad-supported services with decent catalogues out there, itâs pretty jarring to watch, letâs say, Late Spring and suddenly get interrupted with a commercial for cleaning liquid or Taco Bell.
But what if we told you thereâs a streaming service thatâs not only totally free and without ads, but loaded with great new, classic and rare films â and that all you need to access it is a library card.
Itâs called Kanopy. Started in 2008 out of Western Australia, the company initially aimed to be âthe Netflix of educationâ, marketing itself to universities and libraries in the US, UK, Canada and Australia. and hosting thousands of videos from the likes of the Criterion Collection, PBS and BBC. Now, itâs simply a cinephileâs dream, offering over 30,000 titles ranging from classics from Hollywood and abroad, to cult favourites, to hard-to-find obscurities, to documentaries and experimental films, to even newer fare like 2025 Best Picture winner Anora. (A handful are added weekly.) And, as mentioned, if you have a library card from a participating library â or, for college students university ID â thatâs all you need